Thought of the NBA returning to Seattle brings a smile to George Karl’s face

If a Yahoo! Sports report turns out to be true, basketball is on its way back to the Emerald City. According to the report, the Sacramento Kings owners, the Maloof family, is close to an agreement to sell the team to an ownership group that plans to move the team to Seattle as early as next season.

And that would make Nuggets coach George Karl, an ardent fan of Seattle, very, very happy.

When the SuperSonics were uprooted and moved to Oklahoma City in 2008, Karl, who spent seven years of his career coaching that team, said, “It killed me. It happened so quick.”

And yet as much as he loves Seattle he doesn’t however, overstate Seattle’s worth as a basketball city.

“I think it’s a great sports city,” Karl said. “I think it has an East Coast feel. I think sports is always going to be (secondary) because Seattle is a little bit of an individual city – outdoors and entrepreneurs. There’s just a lot of mental action there. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be a great sports city because of that. They have a lot of things on Saturdays and Sundays.”

As for Sacramento, Karl said “in the same sense there’s a part of me that’s disappointed because I think Sacramento, I’ve enjoyed my times in Sacramento. I think Sacramento is a great town. I’m not going to lie, I’m happy that Seattle is going to have a team…but I am disappointed that Sacramento can’t keep their team.”

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.